36 



SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



That part is called the ovary, and if we examine 

 an unfertilised pistil we shall see its base packed 

 with little whitish -green, egg -like objects called 

 ovules. These ovules would never come to anything, 



Fig. 13. — Magnified summit of the pistil of a flower, covered with pollen-grains. 



and would be thoroughly useless, unless the pollen- 

 tubes made their way right through the tissue of 

 the pistil to where the ovules lie. Having reached 

 and penetrated each ovule by a little opening called 

 the inicropyle, the contents of the pollen -grain are 



